Chapter 5: The Early-Warning Paper

He studied through the night.

The aftereffects of the enhancement solution were still there, so Chu Xuan did not feel sleepy at all.

He checked the time, tidied up, and headed out.

“Brother Xuan!”

Han Duoduo was also studying at this hour.

Huh!

Why did Brother Xuan look even better than last night; was it just an illusion?

“Little Xuan, good morning!”

Liu Qi came out and greeted Chu Xuan as well.

In fact, although Chu Xuan was about to graduate from university, he was actually quite young.

After seven years of compulsory education, one could sit for the university entrance exam.

In general, that was how it worked.

By fourteen, one could complete compulsory education.

At present, Chu Xuan was only eighteen years old.

In the underground city, the average person at this age had already been working for four years.

At eighteen, he already counted as “older.”

Liu Qi looked young in the film, but he was already twenty-four.

During the Jupiter Crisis, he was twenty-five years old.

He usually did not talk with him much.

While others would have been proud to have an astronaut for a father, Liu Qi had always brooded over what happened to his mother.

He was somewhat rebellious.

He was very sensitive about anything related to his father, Liu Peiqiang.

…

Looking at Liu Qi, Chu Xuan actually felt a faint sense of closeness.

It was a strange world.

Yet the face was familiar.

Perhaps it was also a kind of comfort for his “hometown.”

He was not alone, since there were still a few “acquaintances” around.

“Bro Hukou,” Chu Xuan came back to himself, smiled, and called out to Liu Qi.

This counted as Liu Qi’s nickname.

Han Zi’ang came out at this moment.

“Grandpa Han.”

Han Zi’ang still attended class in his seventies; aside from the cancellation of retirement, he also simply could not sit idle.

After all, as an astronaut and a lieutenant colonel, Liu Peiqiang enjoyed quite good benefits.

Supporting this family of three was no problem at all.

“Little Xuan, you are about to graduate, right?”

Han Zi’ang looked at Chu Xuan with a kindly expression.

The two families had always had a good relationship, and he had watched Chu Xuan grow up.

He then glanced at Han Duoduo, whose eyes were shining as she stared at Chu Xuan, and thought that in a few years… that might be nice too!

They knew each other’s backgrounds well.

He was handsome and well-mannered.

His character was good.

He was ambitious and capable.

“Yeah!” Chu Xuan nodded.

Han Duoduo hurried to praise him and said, “Brother Xuan is still the best.”

“So I am not impressive?” Liu Qi muttered sourly from the side.

Han Duoduo curled her lip.

“Tsk, Liu Hukou, then why didn’t you try getting into a university back then.”

“I just did not want to take it.”

…

Han Duoduo and Liu Qi launched into their usual sibling bickering mode.

They made a lively, laughing racket all the way.

When they reached the public transit platform, they parted ways.

The production zone was at the bottom of the underground city, and his lab was on the outermost ring of the North District, in buildings dug as tunnels into the mountains.

Over the years, the underground city had undergone three outward expansions.

However, the scale was not significant.

For one thing, the population had hardly grown.

For another, it was also for safety.

On top sat a behemoth weighing on the order of hundreds of trillions of tons, so they could not just dig holes below at will.

Of course, that was the case.

The previous three expansions did not mean they had neglected safety.

Digging a little actually would not cause any problems.

This was because the planetary engines also had a pedestal made of special composite materials that covered over one hundred square kilometers.

It spread out the terrifying weight of the planetary engines.

Carrying out small-scale excavation below was not a big problem.

N3 Experimental Base.

Aside from university students’ project internships, half of the underground city’s plant-related research projects were housed here.

Upon graduation, he could proceed accordingly.

He could choose a research direction and apply to the underground city for a larger lab.

He could even bring trainees to help with odd jobs.

Of course, that was the case.

Not all majors’ graduates enjoyed such treatment, mainly because plant-related disciplines had no mega research projects.

Most were small-scale teams.

If it were mechanical engineering, it would be different.

A cutting-edge project routinely had dozens to over one hundred researchers, and that was the norm.

Chu Xuan was quite satisfied with the original owner’s major.

By then, he would at least be a small boss and would not need to work 9-9-7 under someone else.

…

That was only the case for now.

It belonged to the early phase of Earth’s wandering.

People still had hopes for food output and diversity.

After all, it had only been just over a dozen years since the good life ended.

However, that would change.

As generations passed, things would be different.

The course he studied would surely become less and less valued.

If people had neither eaten nor even seen apples, expecting them to research how to grow more apples for everyone to eat was unrealistic.

That was obviously unrealistic.

Fortunately, this had little to do with him, and who knew what things would be like a century from now.

…

Before long, time flew by.

Chu Xuan arrived at the project lab.

Luckily, he was in his graduation internship.

Otherwise, if he did not attend on time, he would receive a warning from the school in no time.

The principle was strict in admissions and strict in graduations.

That was the teaching ethos of the university here.

After half an hour, he logged the routine experimental data and then went to the lounge.

After a long silence, he started to write the paper.

He titled it “On the Hazard Analysis of the Gravitational Slingshot After Earth’s Trajectory Changes.”

Introduction: While passing through the asteroid belt, Earth changed orbit multiple times, causing the Earth–Jupiter distance during the gravitational slingshot to become too close.

It was still within the safety threshold.

But there was a catch.

One could not rule out the possibility of a Jupiter gravity anomaly, and if it occurred, it would produce disasters far beyond expectations.

When the disaster grade rose high enough, it might cause large-scale failures of the planetary engines.

…

In short, it totaled three thousand words.

Besides laying out the possibilities, it also proposed countermeasures.

It even detailed a plan to ignite Jupiter.

He recommended that even if they did not believe it, they should still make preparations.

At the very least, they should launch a box of “matches” in advance.

It would be on standby at any time.

If it really came to that, they would not need to sacrifice the space station.

To be honest, even Chu Xuan himself felt it was crazy.

Some people would be turning in their graves.

Back when people watched the movie, many stood up, did sets of calculations, and nitpicked in all sorts of ways.

Sure, perhaps those people were right.

However, that was not the point.

Now, things were different.

He had Transmigrated into this world, and such bizarre things had already happened.

In that case, it was better to press those coffin boards back down.

If a film was its own universe, then some things would naturally be different.

For example, in Marvel, Captain America could trade blows with Thanos.

But in their universe, they could make it look like a fifty-fifty contest first to prop up the scene.

With Thanos that powerful, a ragtag bunch in which anyone could trade a couple of moves with him made it impossible to argue reason with anyone.

In Chu Xuan’s view, he no longer thought about it.

One year… there was only one year left.

He did not want to die young again.

…

This was only a first draft, and he did not care about formatting, so he would first write out the main points and later look up materials to fill in the template.

He felt helpless.

Even after Transmigration, he still had to write a paper and still had to cram it into a format.

When he becomes a big shot someday, this Xuan would definitely write however he pleased.

…

After finishing the first draft, he moved on.

He continued studying.

He pulled out all the astrophysics textbooks and his study notes and started from the most basic knowledge.

Otherwise, he would not even know what data to look up.

Was he supposed to fool anyone with a pile of dry text?

A week passed.

For a full week, Chu Xuan kept verifying and studying until he finally chewed through this subject.

Moreover, he finished it with exceptional clarity.

It had to be said.

The enhancement solution’s effects were truly awesome.

However, it still was not enough.

It still was not enough, since it was only a minor and the textbooks he had lacked depth.

He still needed to absorb more, and even cram the brain-burning subject of mathematics.

All right, then!

There was nothing more to say, so he would just grind.